Punjab Minister for Environmental Protection Bao Muhammad Rizwan on Thursday said that the Punjab government has declared smog as calamity and initiated a comprehensive strategy to control it.
Strict action will be taken against those indulging in adding to factors causing smog.
The minister said that traffic smoke is a major cause of smog, saying that use of substandard fuel in vehicles contributing 43% while 25% from industries and 20% smog is being caused by litter burning.
Talking to media persons here on Thursday, the minister said that the Environment Protection Department in collaboration with allied departments has launched a crackdown on smoke-emitting vehicles and brick-kiln using old technology will be closed from November to December in this year. He also cleared that that all the units/ factories and kilns caused air pollution have been identified and given a deadline of the end of September before the arrival of the smog season to enable their units to control pollution otherwise they will not be allowed to operate. Replying a question, the minister said that the Punjab EPA has now drafted the new Rules because in the past thousands of cases were waiting due to unavailability of Penalty rules, which will now be streamlined. The minister said that EPA will take stringent action against persistent defaulters i.e. units operating without obtaining Environmental Approval. He further said that most units/industry in Punjab were operating without NOCs and were causing severe pollution, these units were also tax evaders. The Environment Protection Department is formulating SOPs for small resource recovery unit and with the help of District Administration, a crackdown will be launched against units of fuel adulteration.
The minister also told about a report of BBC that according to report 40 million children in Pakistan suffered from various diseases due to lack of proper control on environmental issues.
